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Stephen King and J.J. Abrams Collaborating on Castle Rock Series for Hulu

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MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Finally a show that will combine Abrams' obsession with asking questions he doesn't bother to think of an answer for with King's complete inability to write a satisfying ending.
 

pa22word

Member
Finally a show that will combine Abrams' obsession with asking questions he doesn't bother to think of an answer for with King's complete inability to write a satisfying ending.

While I don't know about satisfying, his most recent horror novel Revival certainly had a very memorable ending.
 

F!ReW!Re

Member
Finally a show that will combine Abrams' obsession with asking questions he doesn't bother to think of an answer for with King's complete inability to write a satisfying ending.

I really loved the ending for the Dark Tower.
I know, I know, I know, I'm one of the few on here that thinks that way....
 
My brain automatically substituted 'Fraggle Rock' for 'Castle Rock', and I did a huge double-take. (The darkest reboot.) King and Abrams are an interesting combo.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
I really loved the ending for the Dark Tower.
I know, I know, I know, I'm one of the few on here that thinks that way....

I actually really like the "extra" ending (really more of an epilogue) he added on later, that actually
shows what happens to Roland in the tower,
but the original ending as presented in the hardback first edition was garbage, and frankly insulting to someone who spent a couple of decades waiting for it. I mean
after all that, that's the big confrontation with the Crimson King? The guy from The Talisman paints him to death? What the fuck is that shit? To say nothing of how Mordred and Flagg are handled. Terrible.

Not every King ending is terrible, I admit I'm being hyperbolic there, but the vast majority of them are pretty weak, and Abrams is not what I would consider a good influence in that respect. Both of them are great at coming up with and developing an interesting and absorbing premise, often with very well drawn characters, and then sending the entire story down the tubes in the final act because they never bothered to come up with answers to the premise they originally built up and have to make the answers and resolution up as they go. That will never, ever be as satisfying to a reader/audience as a fully structured and planned narrative.

You can't write an effective whodunnit if you don't know from page 1 who did it. Often it seems like Abrams and King are just as in the dark about the "whodunnit" aspects of their stories as we are.
 

Dalek

Member
I'm super excited about this. 11.22.63 was really great-and when I finished it I said "I wish they would commit this level to every Stephen King book ."
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
With how uneven 11.22.63 was I don't know if I should get excited about this or not :(

I actually really loved 11.22.63, it was one of those shows where I was refreshing the hulu app as soon as it hit 12 am so I could watch the next episode.
 

somedevil

Member
y'all remember storm of the century? I thought that was cool as hell

I have that on DVD.

Plus I wonder how they will do this series. It Grows on You was basically the epilogue for Castle Rock.

Dark Half was very good even though by Bag of Bones Thad got the real short end of the stick.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Interested, what is this going to consist of?

fgOWk4.gif
 

Jarmel

Banned
So what exactly is this?

What would be cool is if every season was an anthology story based off of one of his books.
 

kevin1025

Banned
That teaser video is some straight up Fringe title sequence stuff, haha, which makes sense, of course.

I'm super interested. Though I will admit, my mind first went to Rob Reiner's Castle Rock production company, than King's Castle Rock that it's based on.
 

Matty77

Member
King is also publishing a novella written with Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance that is being called a return to Castle Rock. I wonder why the focus on a dead part of his universe?
 

pa22word

Member
Hoping for an anthology series.



The ending was by far the best part of that book.

I liked the entire book, and the ending for that matter, but I've seen some who thought it was stupid and came out of nowhere. Personally I find that rather daft considering how the book is set up, but if you aren't familiar with the author whom king took inspiration from in writing the book (probably a spoiler to say, so I won't) I could see how it seemed like an ass pull despite the warning signs everywhere in the book for fans of aforementioned author to catch.

Then again I think it's kind of odd to be reading king and not have any experience at all with that author, but I guess there are all kinds of people out there who read King's books.

Personally I think revival is one of the best modern king books. Some think it's too slow, but I loved the slow, aching burn in the lead up to the explosive ending.
 

Matty77

Member
I liked the entire book, and the ending for that matter, but I've seen some who thought it was stupid and came out of nowhere. Personally I find that rather daft considering how the book is set up, but if you aren't familiar with the author whom king took inspiration from in writing the book (probably a spoiler to say, so I won't) I could see how it seemed like an ass pull despite the warning signs everywhere in the book for fans of aforementioned author to catch.

Then again I think it's kind of odd to be reading king and not have any experience at all with that author, but I guess there are all kinds of people out there who read King's books.

Personally I think revival is one of the best modern king books. Some think it's too slow, but I loved the slow, aching burn in the lead up to the explosive ending.
To me revival was the tone, length and story type of one his early novels but with the decades of experience and craft honing applied to it.

A literal return to form, yet something he could not have wrote effectively back then.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Yes! Can't wait. Will have to though.
 
OT better be called Stephen Universe or I'm asking for a permaban.

So what exactly is this?

What would be cool is if every season was an anthology story based off of one of his books.

From the teaser, it seems like the first season is going to incorporate The Shining, Shawkshank, Needful Things, and Pennywise.
 

Busty

Banned
Reading between the lines I have a feeling that the ultimate aim of this series is to create a Berlanti esque 'TV universe' of King characters on Hulu with the more popular characters and situations being potentially spun off into their series...,
 
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